A couple of surprises in life came up on me outside of of modeling and I have to start my hopefully short hiatus from the hobby sooner than I had planned, unfortunately with a couple of kits incomplete[:(]
I have aftermarket decals for both kits that will be incomplete so I’d like to preserve them somehow. One sheet is from Belcher Bits and the other is from Tally Ho! of the Czech Republic.
I know there are a few purpose made decal preserving and salvaging concoctions out there , but I’d like to know from other’s experiences, what is a reliable way to preserve the integrity of decals for say at least two or three years?
The sheets are both about a year old and kept in Zip-lock type plastic bags with all the air removed. They will be packed in a cardboard box with their respective models and I don’t suspect they’ll be experiencing any extremes of temperature or humidity while they’re waiting for me to get back to them.
What works well and is fairly compatible with most brands of decals?
Keep them in the ziplocks, keep the temperature temperate, and keep the items out of bright light, and they should be just fine. Hope your hiatus is brief,and that you’re back in the game soon! -Ed
Yeah I hope its short too, but theres a lot of paperwork involved in getting working visas, much more than I thought, and I don’t know how much room I’ll have in the country where I’m trying to secure English teaching work.
thanks for the input, decals can be a bit touchy depending on printing processes, inks and so forth, so one never really knows for certain sometimes what will and won’t work in preserving them. I’ll just do what I’m doing then.
I put a piece of paper towel in the ziploc as well so that the shiney side of the decal does not touch the plastic of the ziploc bag. Perhaps is is not necessary, but I don’t want to take chances that something ends up sticking together.
A friend of mine used to just wrap the decal in a piece of papaer towel and then wrap the entire package up in saran wrap. That way it was easy to ensure that all the air was pressed out.
Only problem with paper towels is that they readily absorb moisture from the air should you develop a faulty seal. Unfortunately, been there and done that! -Ed
I’d be inclined to find a couple of sheets of acid and lignin free archival grade paper if the above few methods are to be attempted.
The chemicals in the papermaking process for paper towels and wax paper are far less exacting than when you’re making paper for archival purposes so it has any chemicals that could leech out of the paper and damage a neighbooring surface have been removed from it. Archival grade paper is of course a bit more expensive, but its nearly ph neutral and when you spent 15 to 20 dollars on aftermarket decal sheets, you don’t like to take your chances
I hope your hiatus from the hobby we all love is short lived … perhaps you can keep in touch with us via this forum. When you get all situated … maybe some of us could mail you a “care-package” … something simple that requires a little paint and glue … just to keep your hand and eye coordination up to speed. A little “plastic fix”.
For whatever it is worth … I have had great luck over the years protecting decal sheets with regular wax paper and “zip-lock” bags. I haven’t had any chemical trouble from the wax paper … but you are correct … with “high $$ after market” decal sheets … one can’t be too careful! I think I would invest in the acid free paper just to be safe.
Best of luck to you … in whatever you do and wherever you do it . Your regular participation here will be missed. [^]
Don’t miss me yet folks, I’m sure I’ll get regular opportunities to grab some internet time and I fully intend to use this forum to keep one foot in the hobby so I’ll still be a regular
On the matter of archival grade paper, fine art stores are good places to look, but in North America I’ve noticed in the past few years that the hobby of scrap books is really taking off and several specialist stores have opened up to cater to it, most of those shops do carry it. If you don’t have one of them around, you may have some luck at a shop that caters to coin and stamp collectors. The paper used in stamp albums has to be ph neutral if the stamps are to remain of any value, so archival grade is the way to go.
If you have an archives or museum near you, you may want to give them a call and ask about souces for such things, I know there are dealers of preservation materials to museums, but which ones would be willing to take an order from a private individual I don’t know.
I have a rubber maid box with an airtight seal tha t I have used for over 20 years of storage, without noticeable effects on my decals. Aftermarket decals are just kept in their original envelopes with the data sheets, while kit decals are put in a large plastic bag. The box itself is rectangular and thin, so there is not much excess air in the box when closed.
If you were in a most climate, you might want to put a bag of silica gel into the box to absorb any ambiant mosture
-Ed